
LESSONS ON THE SANCTUARY.'
29
be readily seen if we begin our reckoning at any other date than
B. c. 457.
6.
" MESSIAH
"
means "anointed One." Jesus was anointed
by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. Matt. 3: 16; Acts 10: 38.
Hence the sixty-two weeks reached to A. D. 27.
7.
THE special work for the Jewish people, the confirming of
the covenant with many for one week (the last week of the sev-
enty), closed in A. D. 34. This date is marked by a general rejec-
tion of the gospel by that people, the martyrdom of Stephen, and
a'great persecution of the church by the Jews. As a result the
believers were scattered abroad, and went everywhere preaching
the gospel.. Acts 7 and 8. The next year, A. D. 35, Saul was
converted, and soon began his work as the apostle to the Gentiles.
8.
ALTHOUGH the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem
was issued in the spring of B. c. 457, the work of building the wall,
to which the seventy weeks were allotted, did not begin till the fall
of that year. This will appear when we remember that it took
several months for the people to get ready for and make such a
journey, and then prepare for the great work to be done. The
record states that they did not reach Jerusalem till the fifth month.
Ezra 7 : 8, 9. From the fact that seven weeks of the seventy were
allotted to the building of the wall, and that work did not begin
till the autumn of B. c. 457, we. conclude that the time to begin
to reckon the seventy weeks must be in the autumn, or when the
commandment was carried into effect, and not the date of the issue.
In other words, the expression, " From the going forth of the
commandment to restore and build Jerusalem," is to be understood
in harmony with the facts to which we have already alluded.
Hence the 2300 days, and all the divisions of it that contained full
years, would terminate in the fall of the year.
The baptism of Jesus would occur in the autumn of A. D. 27,
His crucifixion in the spring of A. D. 31, and the 2300 days would
end in the autumn of 1844. This would be according to the type,
also, as the great day of atonement, the cleansing of the sanctuary, .
took place in the fall, on the tenth day of the seventh month.
This makes complete harmony in the chronology of
.
the 2300 days
in all its divisions, and also in its commencement and termination.